


Winter Returning

by Salamandersickfic



Category: Original Work
Genre: Caretaking, F/F, Fever, Historical, Historical lesbians, Hurt/Comfort, Illnesses, Lesbian Character, POV Alternating, Pining, Romance, Sickfic, Whump
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-29
Updated: 2019-08-29
Packaged: 2020-09-29 18:15:29
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 11,521
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20440346
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Salamandersickfic/pseuds/Salamandersickfic
Summary: Original sickfic, illness, fever, injury and mutual lesbian pining in a vaguely high-fantasy setting.The Kingdom’s peace is uneasy kept only by the recently-deceased king’s scouts, headed up by Lieutenant Kay Winter. They have little time for romance, but in a time of need the Lieutenant finds a reason to return to the arms of her former lover.





	Winter Returning

Thea

I remember the walk home, because it felt like a beginning even if it came in the middle of our story.

It was a still, cold evening. We had had a week of the clouds and low, seeping mists which are usual for this part of the country in December, especially here so close to the river. The valley collects the moisture and breathes fog into the air but it also keeps it from getting so bitterly cold. That day, though, a brisk wind had blown up and chased away the clouds to give us a blue sky, but now that dark had fallen it was cold indeed. Not a perfect night for my duties but at lease I had stars to see by as I walked back from the town, through smaller settlements and out to the cottage all my itself on the edge of the moor.

I'd held the healer's cottage for six years now, since my master passed on and I ended my 'prenticeship in a hurry so that I could fill his position, but I still didn't quite think of it as mine. There were his books on the shelves, he had planned and planted the medicinal garden and half of the remedies ranged in glass bottles were made by his hands. On my way home I always expected him to be at the door to welcome me, and was surprised to catch only my own reflection in the front window- just a woman, dark, tall enough to look most men in the eye. The shawl I wore over my hair made me look older than I was. Frost was settling on my cloak and boots.

The evening had been spent tending to the party of scouts who had just come in from a skirmish out to the west. There were minor some injuries- two bones to set, a handful of broken ribs and older wounds going over to infection from lack of care. The military are always the same, I can hardly hold them down long enough to dress a wound, let along behove them to keep it still. In the hustle and bustle of the camp I was distracted, looking around from my post into the darkening evening for one particular face. She did not come. Not when the first scouts came back as a unit, ten mounted men and women leaning on each other and grey faced, and not in the smaller dribs and drabs that limped in later, left behind.

At last I packed my case away, gave some final instructions and looked in on a young man with a dizzying head injury. Then I was free to give myself over to personal concerns and approached the Captain as calmly as I could.

“I think I'm finished here, Sir. No further casualties, and nothing serious.”

“At ease then.” He nodded without looking at me.

I had to touch his arm to get his attention from the map he was reading. I had to know. “Sir, your Second. Was Kay...?”

That got his focus. He was one of the Old King's old faithfuls with steely silver in his beard and grim lines around the corner of his mouth which only got deeper as he shook his head. “I'm afraid Leuitenant Winter hasn't returned yet. I sent her out solo two weeks ago and haven't had any word.”

He must have caught the concern on my face and softened.

“That's no word good or bad, Healer, no bad news at all. She should be back any day now. I remember now, you too were-”

“-weren't.” I interrupted. “Well, we were, but it was a long time ago.”

“Quite so.” He said neutrally. “You know what Winter is like though. She'll turn up when we least expect her and not before.”

That was true enough. Hadn't I sworn I wouldn't wait for Kay Winter any more?

I took my leave as quickly as I could after that, trying to clear my mind on the walk home. The numbness of my fingers and toes was an almost welcome distraction as I made my way through the narrow, hedged lanes with no lantern lit, nothing more that half a shadow in the dark.

** Kay **

After that skirmish, I found myself with plenty of cuts and bruises and a heavy dent in my mood. It was nothing so unusual; raiders from the west drawn into our country by the promise of our milder winters, attacking travellers on the road for valuables and food. When we had a king this didn't happen, a woman could walk from one end of the country to the other without a word. They were getting bold, too bold, daring to jump on someone in the uniform of the king's scouts. Didn't they know I'd be armed? There were three of them, no good odds, and though the victory was mine I lost my pack and also my bearings. It was only when the fight was over that I realised I'd taken a heavy blow to the head that was bleeding sluggishly. My vision blurred nastily when I turned my head too fast and I had no idea which direction I was supposed to be going. It was miserably cold, so I got walking to keep myself warm, and my feet took over, choosing a path that soon became familiar to me. I wound off the main road where the bandits had been, crossed a field I thought I knew and then I found I was half-way to Thea's.

What kind of welcome I would have I didn't know, but my head was slow and foggy. My brain seemed to have frosted over and throbbed dully with each step and though I tried to think of an alternative my feet just kept right on walking me that way. Walking me to her.

Thea built her house backing onto a natural outcrop of rock so that the very back chambers are formed by a natural fissure in the rock, and the cliff edge supports the wood and thatch structure which leans against it. Before her front door was a porch with a thatched roof that was open on three sides, lit by a lantern hanging from a bracket. Gods bless that lantern, for if it hadn't been burning I would have had a job to find the house, tucked away as it is. The woods are deeper and harder to navigate than they first appear; to the uninformed eye the ground simply slopes down from here to the valley, but on foot one soon discovers that the ground lurches and dips unexpectedly.

The trees were mostly pine and the ground had that slight give to it that only hundreds of years worth of fallen needles can create; I appreciated it for it was easy on my feet after the constant impact of walking along a paved road, yet at the same time it made climbing down slopes treacherous and I had to proceed slowly. Once I could have found my way to Thea's house blindfolded for I used to come to her every day, but that was years ago and things change; the landscapes change, people change. The shock of going straight in to attack after hours of walking in the cold must have been greater than I had thought, on both body and mind, for I was finding it hard to concentrate. If I hadn't known that I was nearly at the house of the woman who was a healer as well as a dear friend, I might have cast my cloak over me and slept where I fell.

I knew that stopping would be a bad idea for only the exertion of walking was keeping me warm. I had been working as a scout for long enough to know that when frost is on the ground, curling up to preserve body heat and falling asleep can prove fatal. As the body gets cooler you can no longer tell how cold it is, and you may never wake up. That wouldn't happen to me. If I just kept moving then the shivers that had plagued me all day stayed as skin-prickling twitches rather than bone-deep shudders that pulled open my healing cuts. Good gods, it was cold though. I tried not to begrudge it for it was the clear sky which blessed me with enough starlight to see my path, but I could not feel my fingers and toes, or my nose for that matter. When the wind stirred in my face it made my eyes water and my nose was dripping. Soon I found myself sniffing every ten paces or so to keep it from trickling down my lip. Great, I thought, really subtle and silent you are tonight, Lieutenant. Between the limp and that constant sniffing anyone in the forest could hear me coming a mile away. There was little for a girl to do, however, so I kept on. Silence be damned. I'd already fought for my life once tonight, and I knew I could draw my bow faster than anyone in this half of the kingdom. In the silence my own breath came desperately loud and I kept thinking I could hear something moving in the trees behind me even though I _knew _there was nothing there.

By the time I reached Thea's door and stood on the porch out of the wind, rubbing my hands together to get enough life into them to unlace my boots, I was feeling distinctly paranoid. Must be the shock, I kept telling myself, just the shock. Breathe deeply. You're safe here. I braced myself for a flood of warmth and light and company, knocked on the door but nobody answered. I knocked again. The door was firmly locked. I sat down in the porch with my head in my hands, letting the dizziness take me.

Thea

When I returned to the cottage I found someone waiting for me. As I neared my door I had that creeping sense that something was wrong or different, a sense which in myself is unerring. My doorway was framed by a porch a few feet deep which leaned into the bulk of the building and shared the same thatch. The lantern I left burning there had long since gone out, the oil spent.

I had thought my eyes well used to the darkness of night but they couldn't be, for my vision was telling me that there was a figure crouched against the wall of the porch, taking as much shelter from the wind as the locked building could give them. The shadow over the valley was deepened by the reaching hands of hazel trees which threw leggy shadows in what was left of the starlight and so thick that I did not discern any presence until I was only a few paces away.

I found her crouched in my porch, her cloak drawn over her head for warmth. As I approached, I saw a face that was instantly familiar and brought my heart to my throat faster than anything else ever could.

“Kay?” I half-ran the final few paces.

It _was _her. She rose to her feet with one arm braced on the doorframe, the other clutched around her middle. I drew her cloak back, greedy for the sight of her.

She always was pale and now she was truly Winter white. Her blond hair, fine as a baby's, was swept back from her face by a smear of crusting blood, her forehead crowned with a fresh bruise and a nasty, ragged cut going into her hairline. But the angles of her face were the same, the set of her shoulders, her compact, muscular figure and full breasts. Some people thought that women who were soldiers ought to be built like boys, but Kay rose in the ranks and proved them wrong.

She was momentarily heavy in my arms when we embraced, and then just as suddenly schooled herself and took her own weight again as if chastened by the lurch of relaxing into me. Sudden movements seemed to sicken and jar her. Her eyes were all together far too bright, tempered steel at the best of times and now so crystalline I feared she may shatter.

“There was no other healer nearby.” Is the first thing she said.

“You never need an excuse to come to me.” I replied.

She shrugged and winced, forming what looked like an apology. “I'm sorry. I hoped you might-”

I interrupted. “You're freezing. Come in. Please.”

Kay looked as though she had half a mind to run off into the dark again, but when I opened the door she followed me.

When she stepped inside I darted ahead of her to build up the fire. Soon its leaping light filled the low-ceilinged healer's room at the front of the house and I beckoned Kay to sit in front of it. She fell into one of two wooden chairs by the hearth with a muffled yelp of pain, and I made a mental note to check for internal injuries as soon as let me. But first things first, by the fire's glow I could see that her clothes were wet through to the knee where she'd been sitting. Every part of her uniform was filthy.

Kay rubbed at the end of her nose with the back of her wrist. “Ugh. It's cold.” She said, as if remarking on the weather to a friend she saw every day. She had always been a master of the understatement. Her body had other ideas and she sneezed suddenly off to one side, a harsh

“_**hhTSCH-ue!” **_

“You need to take off your wet things.” I tell her, wincing.

She nods,“Probably.”

“Definitely. I'll not have you make it here only to freeze to death. Come.”

  
The stockings she wore under her short breeches had to go- it took a moment to tell because they were so very cold they didn't even feel wet any more

“No chilblains.” I reassured her.

I found her a wool blanket and wrapped it around her knees, tucking it around those ice-blocks of feet before she could so much as raise an eyebrow.

Kay was wearing a laced corset over the top of her tunic, in brown. It was suede with ribs of tough leather to hold her up and in, the women's answer to the scout's jerkin with the king's sigil on it in gold. We needed to get her out of that, right now. I ripped her out of it with a few deft tugs- it caught and started to tug on the damaged flesh beneath so I bent and put my teeth to the thong, ripping it open, laying her bare.

Kay's body relaxed and her breath came out in one breath- _ohh_\- as if she'd only just realised she'd been holding it in. The next breath in was a sharp, hissing inhale through clenched teeth as my hand found the stabwound just under her ribs. It wasn't deep, not really, but it looked awful, more than two inches across and angled up as if her attacker was going in under her rib cage but didn't follow through. It wasn't fresh either and didn't tally with the rest of her wounds.

Kay looked at it with a kind of disconnect and curiosity, as though she had forgotten it was there.

“I thought that would have gone away by now.” She said absently.

“They don't tend to just _go away_!” I tried to keep the tut out of my voice. “You were very lucky, by the looks of it.”

“I was lucky.” She said. “He missed. It was a week ago now.”

Talking set her to coughing hoarsely and I hushed her.

There was warm water on the stove and I gave her a mug of it to drink, then poured the rest into a bowl and prepared to clean her wound.

She flinched away when I came near with it.

“It's fine, leave it alone.”

“Not likely, Winter.” I said. I hoped return to her surname, the military name I first met her under, made her more obedient. “No arguments. Lean back.”

In truth I could hardly make myself scrub hard enough to clean the crust off, looking at her beautiful features crimping with each touch. So I tried not to look. She was just a patient, just another soldier, that was all.

Kay hissed through her teeth when I swabbed it with alcohol, and when I spread on a thick salve of herbs. I dressed it as quickly as I could. “You won't need stitches, or I hope not. It'd be a devil of a place to stitch.”

She nodded, mouth opening as though to ask a question. Her delicate features flickered once, twice, and she sneezed again, nose revolting against the change in temperature.

“_**hhTSCH-ue!”**_She swore and clenched an arm tightly across her midriff as the motion tore through her. I could just imagine her flesh tearing.

“Try not to do that?” I winced.

“_You_ try- I- _**KSCHuh!**_Oww.” Kay let out a soft groan and scowled up at me from her chair. It _must_ have hurt.

“Have you been doing a lot of that recently?” I wondered aloud, thinking I saw one of the reasons why her wound hadn't healed. She gave a noncommittal shrug that was so familiar, so casual, that I knew immediately that she had, and that she would sell her own grandmother before she admitted it, so I just found her a handkerchief from the inside of my own corset and passed it to her without a word.

Then went over to fetch the tea things from the other room- there was no way she'd blow her nose if I was watching. When I looked over my shoulder I thought I saw her pressing it to her face, taking in the scent of it. She caught my eye and we both looked away.

Kay

It was like something from a dream. I think I did sleep there in the cold, or at least sank deep into myself and lost the world around me for the world inside until all I could feel was the throb of my head and a more distant pain from my core that was pulsing and almost warm. Then Thea was there and she was taking me into the house and looking at me with her dark eyes all big and worried.

I felt her hands guide me inside and into the chair and I sat down heavily. The sudden movement sent a bolt of pain through my arm that seemed to find both my stomach and the roots of my teeth. I swallowed against the nausea, gritting my teeth so I did not moan. I would not. Nor did I when she undressed me and cleaned my wounds, not until I sneezed and felt like I was being torn in two. Thea clenched her hands when I did that as though it pained her too. Just as well it was a one-off. I didn't intend to do it again.

She went off for a minute and came back with two steaming mugs of tea which she placed by the hearth in front of us. Thea moved along the wall of bottles and jars in her healer's store and traced the labels with her fingers like a blind woman, though I suspected she could find what she wanted with her eyes closed well enough. Her brown dress blended into the shadows and polished wood furniture and I was as lulled by watching her as I was by the hot drink which I sipped gingerly, cradling it with my hands to sap the warmth from it.

At length she returned and came to stand behind me. A hand on my chin tilted my head back so that she could look into my eyes and then at the bruise on my forehead. Her fingers probed it very gently. I expected a shock of pain but it was not so bad, just a dull throb now. Nothing broken but my pride.

  
“'tis nothing.” I tried to tell her, but she gave me a no-nonsense look I was in no state to ignore.  
  
Before I could say anything else she drew up a stool and came to sit behind me. I felt the warmth of her chest on my back as she leaned up against me, then something warm and damp as she cleaned the blood away from the wound in smooth, efficient strokes. She smoothed the cloth right out to the tips of my hair, not that's it's all that long. I was aware of everything about her- her warmth, the slow, even pulse of her breathing, the scent of her. It was so familiar. No one had touched me like that for a long time. I closed my eyes.

She dressed the wound with a gauze bandage. When she rose and took her warm presence from me I felt a pang like loss, but she was only circling around to the front of me to look me over again, satisfied. She dabbed something cold and herbal-smelling on the bruise.

“Open your mouth.” She said.

I complied automatically and let her look into my throat.

“Mm” was all she said, shaking her head. Her fingers migrated from the back of my head to the tender underside of my jaw, probing the glands there. A separate soreness I hadn't been aware of surfaced and I shrugged away.

“I- what are you looking at?”

“Do you feel feverish?” She asked.

Did I? I shook my head. I'd have noticed.

“I suppose it's just a touch, for now.” She confirmed it with the back of her fingers on my cheek. They _did _feel cold but then she always used to have cold hands. I remembered that. She used to slide them into mine, into my pockets, like creatures seeking a nest.

Then the numb, full feeling in my sinuses flared and I batted her hand away in a panic so that I could turn my head into my shoulder to sneeze again. I fought to swallow the sound and came out with a strangled “ _\--Idgsh!--IDgsh!--DSTch! _” that really wasn't worth the effort.

Thea actually smiled, patting me on the other shoulder.

“Gods bless. I was going to say you're certainly catching a chill. I suppose it isn't surprising.”

I sighed. Damn it all, she was probably right. I wanted to tell her that I didn't catch ill, not like that, that I hadn't for years. But there was no point, and a small part of me loved the tender way she looked at me then. Dressing the wounds had been work for her, but apparently this was personal. If it kept her close to me I wasn't about to complain.

We were caught like that for a long time, just looking at each other. Thea was close enough for me to see each dark eyelash where it lay on her cheek, the sweet cupid's bow of her mouth, the... my eyes kept sliding out of focus and my head was throbbing again.

“You need to sleep.”

“Uhuh.” That wasn't words. I shook my head to clear it but that just made things worse and I think I swayed in the chair. Thea's arm caught me at any rate.

“Come.”

Her front room, the healer's room, hadn't changed much since I was last there. Dark panelled walls, the back wall lined with jars of herbs, a heavy desk with many drawers and shelves and shelves of leather-bound books. Thea did not lead me to to the little couch by the window but toward the back of the cottage, through a curtained-off doorway into her private living quarters. She carried a lit candle, shielding the flame with one hand. The glow showed through her fingers like sunlight through a shell.

Next thing I knew she was pushing me down on what I knew was her own bed. It was curtained on three sides and pushed against the wall, a nest of wool blankets and a quilt worn soft with age and use. This place held so many memories it made my head hurt again. The hours I had spent there with her. I think Thea could feel it too.

She had given me a thick nightdress to wear but I still shivered. It started small but built until my teeth rattled in my skull where I sat on the bed. My nose was running down my lip again and I dabbed it sheepishly with the balled-up handkerchief in my hand.

“Get under the covers, and try to get warm.” Thea prompted. I complied. The sheets were like ice, offering no comfort though I curled in on myself. From beneath the blankets I watched her undress. She unbound her hair and it fell in a cascade over her shoulders, thick and so brown it was nearly black. The waves stood out like ripples in the sand. Should I avert my eyes? It wasn't as though I'd never seen her naked before. Thea solved the question by turning her back on me to slip out of her dress and into a long white nightgown. I couldn't seem to pry my eyes from the cello curve of her back. When she turned she caught me staring and a blush painted her cheeks, visible even in the dark. She sat on the edge of the bed and cupped her hand over my forehead, gauging.

“Up.” She said, “But it'd be better for you to sweat it out if you can. Fever is the body's way of fighting. Do you need something to help you sleep?”

“That's not going to be a problem.”

“But your head must hurt, and your stomach?”

I shrugged. “Don't worry. I'll try not the roll over too violently and ruin your work.”

She winced. “Very well. Goodnight then. Wake me if you need me.”

Not likely. Unless something had changed, Thea slept like she was dead. I suppose she had no sins on her soul of the kind that kept a soldier awake. At any rate she lay down beside me and snuffed the candle with spit-dampened fingers. Then the room was dark and I made out her shape only by the relative brightness of the night seeping through the drapes at the window.

She lay on her back beside me with her hips tilted just to one side, inviting. Before I knew what I was doing I rolled in toward her and rested my head in the crook of her shoulder as I had when we were lovers.

She said _“Oh,”_ very quietly. She didn't push me away. I didn't know what to make of it, but I was suddenly warm, warm as I hadn't been for months.

Thea curled around me and I felt my body relax as if I were sinking into the mattress. It was very strange- I was both supremely relaxed, my limbs heavy with tiredness and flickering aches from the bruises only now beginning to form, yet also hyper-alert to the sound of her breathing, the feel of her skin against mine. I wanted badly to sleep, but it seemed like such a waste of this opportunity. Who knew when I would have this chance again?

No, I was not going to sleep, not yet, even if she wanted me to. I would at least lie and savour this moment.

The scent of her was all around me, her sweat and the oil she used on her skin, the incense she burned on charcoal disks.. Her hands were at the back of my neck, sifting in and out of hair and rubbing at the nape, venturing little trips up around the back of my ears or down my neck to the tops of my shoulders. It was good- my head throbbed dully from the blow as well as within my sinuses. As I became aware of that fact, I ran a mental check over the rest of my body. My calf muscles were relaxing painfully from cramped knots and the stabwound in my abdomen was sore and hot. There was an uncomfortable tightness in all my muscles and also in my head and throat. Dizziness came and went in waves.

And my nose, Gods damn it all. I didn't want to move from her, didn't want to indulge my body at all. I worked so hard to be my best around her, and there was nothing to do. The feeling grew in intensity until I couldn't deny it any longer and longed simply to be rid of it.

I sat up in time to draw one sharp inhale and I managed to sneeze away from her. “_**hhTSCHh!**__”_One arm was still under her but I managed to reclaim the other and so shield her from me. “...excuse me.” Ugh, and now my nose was running. Damn it, damn it all.

“Gods bless.”

I made to settle down once more when the need overtook me again._** “htzSscH!” **_

“Gods bless.” Thea repeated, and something about it was so sincere, so gentle that I could barely comprehend it. The motion of sitting up too quickly caught up with me as the room gave a lurch and I closed my eyes, willing the walls to stop swaying so. Although my limbs were still prickled with cold, the covers were a sick, unbearable heat on me. I fought to push them off me but her hand found mine and pressed it.

“We need to keep you warm.” She told me. I was about to tell her that I was more than warm enough, that I was boiling alive in her arms, but the words couldn't push their way through the tiredness and I rolled over instead to make my point known. Strangely, the moment I moved into a space on the mattress not already flooded with body heat the cold made my skin, and it seemed, my very bones, ache. I must have exclaimed, or gasped, or perhaps it was simply that Thea was an expert at reading my body still, even after all this time apart, for she moved to me and held me, wrapping her arms around mine and sharing her warmth and her touch. I suppose I must have fallen asleep.

….

Thea

“Wake me if you need me,” I told her. Kay nodded fractionally, eyes closed.

I took a moment to look over at her, reluctant to snuff the candle and loose her to the dark. The blankets were pulled to her chin in tightly clenched hands. Her knuckles were laced with scars, nails bitten almost to nothing. The white trails of old scars carried on up her arms, I knew, decorating every part of her in the tracery of a decade of sword-training. Kay's hair spread out on the pillow behind her, scarcely darker than the bandage at her brow. A rosebud of fresh blood showed through the dressing and the only other colour to her was the pinkish, irritated colour of her nose and chapped lips, open to allow her to breathe.

After a long, indulgent moment I lay down beside her. I did not mean to draw her to me but the movement was so natural it was done before I could think. Then her head was turned inward on my breast, an arm draped heavily around my waist. I made a sound of surprise but my heart was soaring in my chest. Hadn't a small part of me been hoping for, dreaming of this?

Kay took a long time to settle into a fevered sleep. She pushed me away a few times to sneeze harshly, then settled back again with a snuffling breath against my neck.

It was an uneasy night. I was so conscious of her next to me, wanting her close, not wanting to knock her wounds and hurt her. I found sleep suddenly, like a blanket being pulled out from under me and dropping me into the dark.

When I woke, it was pitch black and my bed was empty.

No question to what had woken me- the woman in my arms climbing over me and bolting from the room, elbowing me in the ribs in the process. It took me a moment to piece together who she was, where I was, why she was here, then I was after her like a shot.

“Kay?” I called after her.

She stumbled through the cottage, tripping on the uneven floors and unfamiliar corners. I caught up with her in the hallway near the front door where was rifling through her cloak and the clothes I had taken off her last night.

“What are you-?”

“Hssh!” Her eyes were wild and unfocused, glinting like steel.

“You're fevered- it's alright-” I tried.

Kay actually grabbed me and put a hand over my mouth. I yelped through it but she only squeezed tighter and hissed in my ear “Hush! There's someone there. I know it. I _know_ it, Thea! Where is my bow?”

She managed to lay a hand on her bow and quiver in the dark and dropped me to notch an arrow to the string. She slung the quiver over her nightdress. I kept silent, not wanting to startle her. Clearly she was wandering. I could feel the fever heat of her without touching. Bow raised, Kay crept back through the room to the side door which opened out to the garden. I followed her a few paces behind, ready to catch her if she bolted out into the woods. She would truly catch her death out there in her bare feet if I let her.

Then I heard it- the crunch of footsteps on the gravel path the other side of the wall. A stealthy scrabbling sound, the clink of metal. My blood sang in my ears as though I'd been struck.

Kay Winter's reactions were far quicker and surer than mine. While I gaped like a fish she lifted the latch of the door, muffling the bar with her other hand so that it would not rattle when her fingers shook.

What happened next happened too fast to follow. The door opened. Kay darted out, her bow raised. I heard the arrow as it was loosed and then a cry. There was a barely a pause between them- her target must have been incredibly close. There was a confusion of running feet and I managed to get out of the door in time to see a figure limping off into the woods at the back of the house. Kay came after him in her nightdress and sent another arrow flying, then a third. I heard the first one clatter off a tree but the next found it's mark, evidenced by another yell of pain.

Kay ran a few more paces and then stopped, winded and clutching at her injured side. I caught up with her and we stood together as the man she had shot limped out of sight into the dark.

Silence descended. The wind dropped and the landscape was utterly still, wrapped like a frame around the woman in the white nightdress with her bow dropped to one side and staring out at the night. Kay breathed heavily, swaying slightly, and turned her head to me.

“The last one got him.” Her voice was hoarse, absent.

“I don't understand! Who was he? How did you know he was there?”  
  
“Thought I heard someone following yesterday. One of the ones who got away, who gave me this.” She touched her bloody head- the bandage has slipped off. “Wouldn't last long as a scout without good senses.”

“Do you think he's dead?”

She shrugged. “Close to. The first one went straight through him and the last got his leg. I don't fancy he'll come back...”

Her voice tailed off as she started to shiver again. She looked down at her own naked feet in the wet grass, suddenly noticing the cold and her lack of shoes. My own toes were already numb.

“Damn.” Kay said faintly. She was staring at me as though I was all she could see. All the colour had dropped from her face as though some internal reserve of strength had just run out, allowing the pain and fever to break over her.

Her breath shivered and her eyes drifted closed.

“_heh__**TSSNnch**__!”_

The sneeze sounded painful, damp and wrenching. Reflexively I put an arm around her waist to brace her through it. She leaned into me gratefully as the urge passed, unable to fully raise her head.

Finally she said, in a suppressed shudder of breath “...I don't feel well.”

I thought my already pounding heart would split out of my chest. My other hand rubbed her back in a helpless, soothing circles.

“I know. I know.”

It took her a long time to limp back to the house. Once there I made straight for the fire, built it up again and sat Kay in front of the blaze with a blanket around her shoulders. From the hand clasped at her middle her wound was clearly paining her now, though her nose was giving her more trouble still. Thick congestion had settled in her head and set her sniffing fretfully every few minutes. Despite the sickness she sat straight as a soldier will, staring out into nothing.

  
I had to say her name twice to get her attention. I circled around to the side of her chair and put a hand on her shoulder, trying to rub away the shivers. It didn't make any difference but I felt better for doing it.

“Kay- do you think he will come back? Do you think he was alone?”

She shrugged, shook her head. “He was the last. I didn't hear anyone else. But if someone came, I'd take them too.”

“Not in this state.”

“Try and stop me. I-” She was looking at me fiercely. There was something odd and tender in her vehemence. Her hand reached up to find mine and clasp it, a little too tightly. “It's what I'm for. What I joined to scouts for. To protect- I- people like you- deserve- _hhih-_ _**htzSscH!” **_She sneezed cringingly into the loose cup of one hand, grasping the other around her injured side as the motion tore through her.

“Gods bless you.”

“Thag you-” She murmured hazily before collapsing again, “-_htz__**SschUe!**_”

I winced with her, sliding my fingers soothingly through hers. “I can give you something for the pain and the fever, but you do need to sleep.”

She nodded. “I think I could sleep.”

I gave her a measure of medicine in a cup and water to wash it down with when she spluttered through her raw throat. Then she let me dress her forehead again and followed me to bed as tame as a lamb. When she lay down her head was burning hotter than before, but I hoped the herbs would see to that. In the mean time I sat down beside her.

“Do you want me to go and sleep in the other room, so you can have more space?”

“Stay.”

I had so many questions to ask her, but she was clearly in no state to talk. I read her meaning from the way her warm body curled against mine, the grateful nuzzle of her cheek into my shoulder. Whether she would feel the same way in the morning was anyone's guess, but for that moment she was all mine again and I had never felt anything so wonderful.

Kay

What followed was an uncomfortable blur of sleep and waking. I was caught between slow burning pain through my core that kept tugging me to consciousness and fever dragging me back into sleep. The dreams were intense and broken- fire, snow and fighting for my life back on the front line. Throughout all this surfaced Thea’s face over me. Her hands lifting my head and tipping water for me to drink, putting something cool on my hot forehead, trying to feed me something that I pushed away, nauseated.

I woke at last from a deep dream to some clarity of mind. I opened my eyes to hazy sunlight through a crack in the curtains. There was a moment of peace as I looked around the room, Thea’s familiar room. There were the tapestried drapes over the bed, the wood panels and her dresser in the corner littered with jugs, glasses and dirty cloths and handkerchiefs. There was a wooden chair with arms and a high, carved back. On this sat Thea, her head tilted back and clearly asleep. Her hair had mostly escaped from her braid, spilling out from her shoulders. Her eyes were circled underneath and one hand hung slack by her side, hovering over a book that had fallen spine-up on the floorboards. Let her sleep. By look of her, and the state of me, she needed it.

With this in mind I moved as slowly as I could. Not that my injuries let me do more than roll over and then prop myself laboriously up on one elbow. I was perhaps less sore than yesterday- yesterday? -what day was it? My head was clearer now, the fever faded out. I didn't want to pull the wrappings off and look at my wounds but they felt tight in a good way, like they’d been healing.

The rest of me was another matter. The next thing that I noticed was that my throat felt brutally hot and dry. I swallowed nervously with the distinct feeling that if I were to start coughing I would be unable to stop until Thea was wide awake. I cast around for something to blow my nose on. Damn Thea and my own foolishness. There was no denying now that I had a chill on top of everything else and that it was almost the worst of my problems. The thick congestion in my nose was somehow harder to ignore than a battle wound. The sensation of it was constant, vexing.

The moment I sat up it flared to a tingling that set me sneezing fittishly against one wrist.

“_IDgsh! -Idgsh!-IGH_schuh_! _hk--” My breath hovered. “_heh__**TSSNnch**__!”_

That was uniquely painful. A searing pain shot through my stomach as I doubled over, my bruised head throbbed hot and my throat felt like someone had taken a file to it. No sooner had I blinked hazily than Thea was rising from her chair, giving me the big concerned eyes again.

“So you're awake.” She said, pleased.

“So are you.” I replied, foolishly. Was that hoarse shadow of a thing my voice?

“Aye.” Thea smiled. “Move up, I want to check your dressing. How are you feeling?”

She sat next to me on the bed, parted the covers and raised my nightdress so that she could unpeel the bandages.

“I'm alright.” I told her. Then I stopped because her fingers on my bare flesh made me shiver. Her hands looked very brown on my white skin, long and capable as she parted the wrappings, probed my injury, tutted and replaced them.

“As well as can be expected. I think I'll leave them a little. Besides, you're-”

Damn my nose again. The tingling rose to a desperate need and a shuddered with sneezes into my cupped hands.

““_IDgsh! -Idgshue-! _”

Thea leaned in to me and ran a hand over my cheek, sweeping an errant lock of hair back behind my ear. That was no necessary, healer's touch but heavy with affection, as her voice was when she spoke;

“-and you're full of cold too, poor love. Did you know you were asleep for a whole day and a night?”

“I'b sorry.” I said.

The woman beside me curled closer, offering her warmth and a hand on my back as I blew my nose and subsequently coughed hard into the handkerchief she'd found for me.

“You'll be well soon, I'll see to it. I suppose I ought to send a message to the scouts, tell them you're here, but I expect they'll find you soon enough. Will you stay until they do?”

I nodded. Thea gave me a radiant, relieved smile.

“What?”

“Nothing. It's just the first time I've had you to myself in a long time.”

“I didn't want it to be like this. I don't mean-”

“Hush.” She sighed, shaking her head. Her brown eyes hardened just a little, stones rather than chestnuts. “I don't know what to say. Let me just enjoy having you here for a little while at least.”

I lost the thread of the conversation then and lay back down on the bed. I was much better but a fever will do that to a woman and I was grateful for the chance to close my eyes- I didn't know what I'd meant to say to her either. I was just glad to be there. My head pounded, my sinuses felt thick and my throat welled with pain at every swallow.

“Sleep if you can, Kay.” Thea said at last. “I need to go out around the village. I've patients to see but I've arranged that noone will come here and disturb you. I'll see you before sunset.”

She leaned and smoothed a hand through my hair again. I was almost asleep by the time I heard the front door close.

* * * * * 

When I awoke again the sun was lower in the sky. By my reckoning it was late afternoon. This time my head was clearer still and my back ached from lying so long. With Thea gone, this would be an excellent time to try rising from bed without her watchful, wincing gaze.

I took it slowly, but the pain as I moved was worst at the moment of going from prone to sitting. After that it was better. Whatever Thea had been putting on the wound at my stomach, it no longer felt hot, merely sore.

I took a few shaky steps across the room. As soon as my head stopped spinning I set out to explore the once-familiar territory of Thea's cottage.

It was very still. The low sun spilled orange light in long beams across the wooden floor, playing on the dark furniture and picking out threads in the tapestries that hung over one wall. When I opened the door to the living room I jumped as a slim tabby cat streaked past my legs and into the back, as startled by me as I was by her. Thea had always loved animals, but hadn't kept any when we first met. Perhaps she had grown lonely...

When Thea returned she found me sitting by a freshly set fire where I had put a pot of water to boil and cleaned away some of the mess of previous days. She came in with a gust of cold air that made me shiver. Her green shawl was wrapped over her head and her hands were holding a basket of vegetables which she set on the floor before coming over to me. There was a flush in her cheeks that became her.

“What happened to resting?” She said, by way of greeting.

“I am.” I defended myself. “But I'm not completely useless.”

“Far from it.” She smiled though, and embraced me warmly before giving my an appraising look.

  
“How are the injuries?”

“Better.”  
“And the cold?” She asked shrewdly.

I considered a lie, then sighed. “About the same.”

“There's a lot of it about. Even in people who don't chase down attackers in their nightdresses.” She said. “Does you throat hurt? And your head?”

They did, and she set about making some kind of draught for me. I accepted it without comment- I was getting better at being a patient. It taxed me but I did want the thick head and blocked nose to be gone as soon as they could. While I drank, Thea sat opposite with her own tea. We talked for a while about small things, moving only to add wood to the fire or more hot water to our cups. The world seemed to shrink down to us two women, the sound of the logs crackling, the purr of the cat from its place by the hearth.

The steam loosened some of the congestion from my nose and the more I sniffed it back the more it itched me until I was sneezing again.

“huh... _huh__**TSSN**__ch!” _I hovered itchily, coaxing the sensation with delicate, hiccuping breaths until I was able to get some relief. ““_**ISSCh**__ue! __**-IDSH**__!!”_

“Gods bless,” Thea murmured. “Perhaps we ought to go to bed.”

This time there was less awkwardness. Without speaking we both made our way to her bedchamber and undressed as before. When I lifted off the tunic I'd been wearing, Thea halted me to look at my wounds. I sat on the edge of the bed and let her dress them. Just for a moment as I sat there bare-breasted, I felt her gaze rake over me in a way that was not professional at all. It passed and we lay beside each other. I found the movement clumsy and had to steady myself on the wall while the room moved minutely. I couldn't quite find my hands.

“Kay?”

“I feel a little strange.”

She nodded. “Your fever's up again, then. Colds are always worse at night. Do you want more medicine?”

“I'd rather sleep it off.” I admitted. I felt muzzy enough without a draught to make me sleep and the idea of raising my head and drinking, of her absence while she prepared it, was unappealing.

“Fair.”

Thea parted the blankets for me to lie down. I settled on my back with head on the pillow, trying to get more air through my blocked nose so that my lips might have to chance to be less chapped and sore. Thea lay down beside me and I turned to my side so that she did not have to stare at my twitching nostrils all night. I tried to sleep but every ten minutes or so I had to sneeze, hard enough to send a throb of pain through my head, tearing at my injured stomach no matter how I tried not to move.

After a particularly harsh “_**-IGH**_schuh_!” _that may have ended with an unintentional whimper, Thea moved toward me and curled a comforting hand up to rub at my back. Her sluggish movement suggested she was all but asleep.

“_hk'__**TSHt**__!_” - I tucked my fist under my nose in an attemt not to wake her and was rewarded by a spasm of wrenching coughs. Thea startled awake and rubbed my back again, resting her head against my shoulder.

“Poor love.” She said, very softly. I don't think she meant me to hear it but I did. Some sweetness in it was exactly what I needed to send me into sleep at last.

Thea 

We came into a kind of rhythm after that day, for the two that followed were much the same. I was often busy out of the cottage and though Kay professed restlessness and was forever on her feet, tending her weapons, the fire, the garden, she did not stray far. I came home to find her in the woodland to back of the garden, felling enough wood to last the rest of the winter. I could see that the swing of the axe pained her and she could not stop coughing and sneezing in the cold air, but it was no good asking her not to.

I watched her from a distance. Her breath trickled from her lips in plumes and she paused to cough chokingly into her fist at regular intervals, but it didn't stop her moving. 

We seemed to be stuck in this brittle, lovely pattern. It couldn't last forever, the scouts would come and find her sooner or later and she would leave me as she had before. But for now, all I could do was enjoy it, enjoy her. And I did. 

The shivering cold drew her closer to me and I was grateful for it. We spent the nights under the same blanket. As she got stronger we reverted to our old positions in the bed, me with my head cradled on her breast, her chin on the top of the head.

The third day was different. Kay was much better, her wounds healing. The gash on her head had made a russet crust that still split and cracked when she moved too fast, but she didn’t need the dressing on it any more. The swelling on that side of her face was down, leaving only faint purple warpaint just above her left eye. She let me fasten her hair back from it and looked almost back to her practical self. She moved tenderly around the cut on her stomach. The fever came and went, worse at night, then seemed to pass, though the cold was very much in evidence and she was fairly miserable with it. She didn't say anything but it was in the pained twist of her mouth after a set of sneezes tore through her throat, in the hollow husk of her voice.

“You needn’t-“ she said, each time I rubbed her back through a fit of coughs, or passed her a cup of water in the night. But I think she smiled, and when her head felt heavy she let me run my fingers through her hair. 

I felt better about leaving her then. That day I went out and left Kay sleeping. She lay on her back with her mouth charmingly open, one hand cast above her head as if in a gesture of despair. In sleep her features were softer. She was almost smiling. As I climbed over her to leave the bed I couldn't resist a swift press of my lips to her cheek. She smiled more. 

It was still bitterly cold. I dressed as quickly as I could and threw my thickest shawl over my shoulders before setting out into the morning, munching on a piece of bread. My boots echoed like hoof beats on the frozen earth as a went down the lane and toward the town.

My business in town kept me for longer than I expected. I saw four patients, stopped by the market and the hardware shop that sold my bottles, cloths for straining and copper pots for boiling up. The woman in there, Mara, blinked at me over her ledger of figures. 

“It’s been a few days. Have you been well?” 

“Quite, thank you.” I said guiltily. “Just avoiding the bitter weather. I had much to do at the cottage despite the season.” 

“Oh aye.” Mara said neutrally. “But there’s folk looking for you. Two scouts came by not an hour ago.” 

“For me?” 

“They didn't have any wounded, they said. Wanted to ask you a question. Asking the way to the cottage. Go out in the square and you’ll catch them, I expect.” 

So it was time. My interval alone with Kay Winter was at an end and her people had come for her. I straightened my back and left the shop at a brisk walk, chin up to face the world. 

I missed them in the square and hurried back along the lanes out of town without a hope of catching them up. The prints in the soft ground under the trees told me that they were on horseback, so I hadn't a chance. 

It was early afternoon by the time I returned to the cottage. The sun was still above the trees and it shed lemon yellow radiance that made even the bare garden magical. It was incredibly still. Not even the foraging robins were speaking in the bushes. The only intrusion of sound was the huff and stamp of two horses hitched to the big elm tree at the edge of the woods. I passed them on my way to the door, reached out absently to pat the nearest on it’s flank. They were tough dun and black beasts with bright, handsome eyes and the insignia of the King’s Scouts on their tack. 

The door to my house was ajar- _Letting in a draught in this weather- _and the unfamiliar rumble of a masculine voice came from within. 

“Hello? Who’s there?” I called. “Kay?” 

The front room was empty. Our visitors and Kay herself were through the back, in our bedroom. My bedroom. I felt invaded. Bristling, I strode forward. 

What was Kay doing in the bedroom? Had she taken a turn for the worse? I found it hard to imagine, I'd thought the worst was over and besides Kay would fall on her own sword before she held an audience with her superiors in her nightdress. But sure enough the door to the bedroom was ajar and I could hear Kay coughing. Two tall figures hovered on the threshold. 

“Excuse me, Sir, Madam.” I addressed the two scouts and they turned to me. 

It was the Captain and a scout I didn't recognise who had her dark hair braided up on her head. At least they had the good grace to look embarrassed. 

“Very sorry to intrude, Miss Loughran.” The Captain bowed to me. “We had information suggesting Leiutenant Winter was out this way and we were in the area so….” He spread his weapon-coarsened hands. 

“… so you thought it was appropriate to burst into my house while I was out.” 

He cleared his throat and tilted his head to indicate the bedroom. I peered past his shoulder to see Kay lieing in the bed. Well, it could only have been Kay but the covers were pulled so far up over her head that very little of her could be seen. Her hair was damp with sweat, mussed over the pillow and matted with blood in a streak across her forehead. Her eyes were almost closed but for a split second they opened and caught mine. No way was that woman sleeping. She was watching and listening as hard as she could. 

I was about to speak to her but she shook her head minutely. Then the movement came again, a shudder through her shoulders as she drew a ragged breath and sneezed- “_**htzSscH!”- **_ weakly against the pillow. She didn't even open her eyes but groaned afterward, her breath a whisper. 

What on earth had happened in the hours I was gone? 

Kay sneezed again and the female scout drew back a few steps in distaste. The sound turned into a nasty, drawn out cough that rattled in her chest. 

The Captain cleared his throat, clearly embarrassed. 

“Truly sorry, Thea.” He said again, less formal and more genuine. “If I'd known she was in such a bad way I'd not have intruded. Had we best come back another day?” 

“I expect you had.” I replied absently, distracted by the state of the woman in my bed. “Wait in the front and I'll see to her a moment.” 

The minute they had retreated I fairly ran to her bedside and knelt, peeling back the covers to look at her face. 

Kay raised her head enough to see that the others were gone and placed one finger to lips. _Not a word. _Well, then. What was she playing at? 

I cupped a hand over her forehead. It was damp and warm, but only under-the-blankets warm. The wound on her head had been knocked open and she’d swiped the blood and fluid back into her hair. It looked far worse than it was. 

The cough that came a moment later was real enough though. She was working up a nice chest infection and I didn't like the sound of the wheeze between each breath. Kay struggled to one elbow to get more air and I passed her a cup of water. She sipped gingerly and lay back down. 

“I’ll just go and tell the captain that you're too unwell to give information or rejoin the force at present, then.” I said very quietly. 

A cough, a minute nod. 

Back in the healer’s room the female scout was pacing in front of the window as though expecting the ash trees to leap out and attack. The Captain has lowered himself into one of the wooden chairs and gestured for me to take the other. 

“Is she… will she recover?” He asked. 

I bit my tongue. “I expect so. What she needs is time, and not to pass it on to the rest of the force.” 

The scout at the window nodded emphatically and the captain rose to his feet. 

“As you were then, Thea. We’ll be on our way. When should we come back?” 

“I wouldn't hold your breath. She’s wounded too, more than you saw. If you want her back in fighting condition I'd wait for her to come to you. She knows where to find you.” 

“She does that.” He growled, buckling his crossbow back over his shoulder as he made for the door. He paused to clap me on the shoulder. “See her well for us.” 

“I will.” I promised. 

I stood at the window and watched until the horses were out of sight. Only then did I draw the curtains against the bitter weather and made my way back to the bedroom to give Kay Winter a piece of my mind for nearly scaring me to death.

Kay 

“You scared me to death!” Was the first thing Thea said when she came into the room. 

“Have they gone then?” 

When she nodded I flung the covers off and sat upright. It was stifling under there and I was wearing some of Thea's old clothes, for when I head the Captain coming I hadn't had time to change. Between the two I was slick with sweat and it made the congestion and pounding in my head feel ten times worse.

Thea came to sit on the side of the bed.

“I didn't know you were an actress. Or such an actress as that.”

“Neither did I. But it was worth a chance.” I said.

Thea laughed then, really laughed. “It seems they think you have some sort of plague. You're as cunning as a winter fox.”

I had to snuffle uncomfortably to answer, finally admitting. “I feel rough enough. I'm not exaggerating so much as all th- _th-_-_aah_ – _**htzSscH!”**_

A conveniently timed sneeze knocked me forward into my lap. When I looked up, Thea was holding a handkerchief out for me with a complicated expression on her face.

“But Kay-” she paused. “Why? Why exaggerate? Why lie?”

There was the question. It wasn't until she asked it that I knew the answer myself, and then it was obvious. There was more than simple need that had lead me to this house in the woods

“Because...” a deep, steadying breath. “I just want to stay here with you. If you'll have me.”

There. I'd said it. My heart was hammering now and I closed my eyes as though I could remove myself from the situation.

“Why did you wait so long?”

I shrugged. “I thought if I was injured you wouldn't turn me away. I didn't mean to get ill, to be a burden-”

“Of course you didn't mean to. Nobody would wish that on themselves.”

_To be in your arms? _I thought, _they just might._

Thea still hadn't quite answered the question but the reassurance in her eyes was quite enough for me.

Most of her hair had worked loose in what must have been a headlong hurry through the woods. She pulled the tie from the end and bundled it in her hands, rebraiding it into a fat plait like a horses' tail. I loved the darkness of it against her skin. As the strands of hair were bound together so her thoughts collected themselves, visibly, and when she looked at me properly again it was the practical, sensible Thea I was used to.

“You're soaked with sweat. You ought to have a bath.”

It did sound good. Now she said it I was aware of the slick, itchiness on my skin. I ducked relexively into “Not if it's too much trouble...?”

“Stop it, Winter, it's no trouble. I'll go and draw the water.” Thea said, and off she went, leaving me marvelling at this woman and at myself.

…

When the bath water was warm, Thea called me into her front room, the healer's room where the tub sat in front of the fire. Evening had fallen but the lamps were lit and golden light spilled across the floorboards. It was warmer in there and Thea had taken her overdress off. She was left in a light undershirt and a skirt, sleeves pushed up to her forearms to be out of the water. When she saw me approach she pulled a kettle from the fire and added it to the bathtub where the water steamed.

She'd seen more of me than most people but I still felt a twinge of shyness and wondered if she was going to turn her back while I bathed or whether she intended to wash me like a babe. Thea's face was flush, eyes shining. The humidity had lifted curls of hair from her forehead.

She was definitely watching me, perhaps for the cue to leave. She didn't _have _to leave.

I started at the buttons on my shirt when Thea rose suddenly, crossed the room to look at me and almost shouted;

“--You were promoted and you just left-- You never came back!”

Thea_ never_ raises her voice.

She clapped a hand over her mouth but the words had already surprised me, too; like a slap, like ripping a bandage from smarting flesh.

“Did you want me to?”

I had to be sure. I hadn't been sure then and that had been the problem.

Thea had gained back her usual control now. She took a step back from me but kept those dark eyes on me all the while.

“Are you mad?” She said. “Yes. Of course I did.”

I felt a little light-headed. It must have been the warmth in the room.

“I didn't know...” I said stupidly. She stared at me defiantly until I continued. “... For the first six months I couldn't write, and then I didn't know what to say. I thought you wouldn't want me away most of the year. You could have someone with you all the time. Someone more like you.”

“I don't want anybody else.”

She sighed and turned away, hands twitching for a job to do. I reached out and held them, held her to me.  
  
“Are you angry, Thea?” I asked.

She didn't have to think about it.

“...not with you.”

Then she kissed me.

The sweetness of it nearly knocked the air from my lungs, at once foreign and familiar- I remembered this, but it had been such a long time. Her eyes closed but I kept mine open so I could watch her. It was long, slow and tentative as our lips and tongues began the process of relearning each other. It was only after our lips had drawn apart and we were gazing drunkenly at each other that it occurred to me- “I'll get you ill...”

Thea gave a giddy laugh, murmured, “It's days too late to worry about that. But your bath will get cold. Take your things off.”

So I did, and there was no more shame to be had. I dropped them in a puddle on the floor and stepped into the warm water before the chill of the air could rake my skin. It was good and hot.

Bright fire burned across the site of my wound and I paused my breathing to grit my teeth until it passed, and pass it did as elaxation stole over me.

The steam from the bath loosened the congestion in my head and I sniffed warily, knuckling under my nose in irritation.

“That must feel better.”

I lay in that bath for a long time, breathing slowly, casting shy looks at the woman beside me.

“It's getting cold.” Thea said at last. “You should get out.”

“Can I go to bed now?” I asked. Out of the water I was shivering and my teeth started to chatter.

“Of course.” Thea smiled. She found my nightdress as I towelled myself down and came to me with a candle in her other hand, like a vision of everything I ever wanted; warm, kind, beautiful.

“I feel like I could sleep for a thousand years...”

“You can rest as much as you want, Kay.” She said. “After all, it's nearly winter and the weather may be too bad to worry about rejoining the scouts until spring.”

We both looked out of the window at the same time and blessed the darkening night that, this time, would keep us together.

FIN.


End file.
